Monthly Archives: July 2018

We did not give him a name that meant fire
because we knew that,
on his own he would burn bright and hot.
And we thought we were right.
We gave him a name that means peace
and hoped it would bring him peace through his life.

We were wrong to do this-
we should not have denied who we both knew he would be-
who he is.

We should have held him up,
before the sun, our son,
and said- here he is-
a boy with fire to make even you envious.

And perhaps, if we had done that,
if we had announced him in this way,
he would not feel the need to explode and burn-
turning the peace around him
into ash.